1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to security systems and, more particularly, to a system for mitigating the effects of an Active Shooter.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since 1909, at least 272 acts of targeted violence have occurred on 218 college campuses throughout the United States. Currently, 6,563 university campuses contain a combined population of over 21,400,000 people, or what can otherwise be viewed as potential Active Shooter victims. An Active Shooter generally refers to an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined populated area typically through the use of firearms, but may also include other types of weapons. The average duration of an Active Shooter incident in high occupancy facilities such as U.S. Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) is 12.5 minutes. In contrast, the average law enforcement response time is 18 minutes. Current conventional control measures for active shooter incidents have been and remain insufficient to reduce the rate of kill, or improve law enforcement response time to such events.
Current conventional security measures must be augmented or reinforced in some novel way in order to provide an appropriate level of security for students, faculty and staff in American colleges and universities as well as other high occupancy facilities. A high occupancy facility generally refers to a public or private facility containing 100 or greater occupants or supporting a daily transient patron throughput of 100 or greater.
There is no current policy, procedure or conventional system adequate to prevent active shooter scenarios prior to their occurrence or reliably mitigate their effects once these events have started. First responders, when dispatched via standard 911 notifications, are simply not able to respond to an active shooter scenario quickly enough to prevent injuries or deaths.